Keynote Speakers

Dr. Carl Ellis, Jr.

In 1969, Carl Ellis began his ministry as a Senior Campus Minister with the Tom Skinner Associates in New York. From 1979 to 1989, Carl served as the Assistant pastor of Forest Park Community Church in Baltimore, MD, served on faculty at Chesapeake Theological Seminary, and as a seminar instructor for Prison Fellowship where he developed and taught “in-prison” and “in-community” seminars for inmates and community volunteers. Between 1986 and 2009, Carl served as an adjunct faculty member at the Center for Urban Theological Studies (C.U.T.S.), and as Dean of Intercultural Studies at Westminster Theological Seminary in Philadelphia, PA.

​In 2015, Dr. Ellis was appointed Senior Research Fellow with Reformed Theological Seminary (RTS). Carl currently serves as the Academic Dean of The Makazi Institute, which he co-founded in 2012 to train the next generation of high-level cultural analysts. He is also the Associate Pastor for Cultural Apologetics at New City Fellowship, and serves on numerous boards and as a consultant on cultural matters.

Dr. Albert Reyes

Dr. Albert L. Reyes is the sixth President and CEO of Buckner International. He previously served as president of Buckner Children and Family Services. Prior to his tenure at Buckner, Albert was president of Baptist University of the Américas in San Antonio. He also has served as pastor of three churches and as a manager for Sprint’s National Customer Service Call Center. Albert and his wife, Belinda, have three children. They are members of Park Cities Baptist Church in Dallas.

Tracey Bryan

Tracey Bryan… [is] president/CEO at The Bridge of Southern New Mexico, a nonprofit organization supporting educational excellence and the workforce in Doña Ana County…

Bryan has spent more than 20 years in nonprofit and for-profit communications and leadership positions. Much of that time was in the philanthropic sector, engaged in groundbreaking, resident-led, community transformation efforts in San Diego, California. However, she counts her work with the Bridge and alongside the committed leaders and residents of Doña Ana County as the most fulfilling of her life…